Title: A Star Upon A Dream
Author: Kendall T. Newell
Illustrated by: Salvador Capuyan
Publisher: XlibrisUS
ISBN: 978-1-6641-8357-5
Genre: Illustrated Children’s Book / Autobiography
Pages: 54
Reviewed by: Beth Adams
Pacific Book Review
Within the covers of A Star Upon A Dream, author Kendall T. Newell provides readers with a story of a young girl named Meleah, awakening to a day when her school is having “career day.” On this day she is excited to learn about some possible pathways for her life to take, yet feels her “calling” is that of helping animals in a zoo.
The story pages with many illustrations as Meleah goes off to school and is visited by a doctor, a policeman, a fireman, then to her surprise, a zoo keeper! All throughout her day her friends try to steer Meleah away from each of the initial career courses by saying things to her such as: her grades aren’t good enough to be a doctor; she isn’t good at hide-and-seek hence not a potential police officer where she would need to catch criminals; she’s not good at climbing so she won’t make a good fireman when she needs to rescue people. And her friends finally said Meleah is not fast and strong and there is no way she can work with exotic animals – some of them weigh a ton. So, all of their comments made Meleah feel bad. Her dad realized this, and after school, he bought her an ice cream cone and they had a talk by the shore of a river.
This is where the book morphs into a beautiful, almost poetic, moral of self- determination, goal setting, and self-fortitude in strength to achieve one’s goals. He tells Meleah, “You can be anything you want to be in life, so do not let anyone tell you differently.” He then goes on to tell his daughter about his own goals of being a wrestler. For the remainder of the book, the story (autobiographical in nature) is told to exemplify the ability to achieve one’s calling in life.
A Star Upon A Dream is laden with good advice, strong and clear goal setting, and encouragement for all readers to pursue what they believe, regardless of negative comments coming from others. It is a lesson which cannot be repeated enough, and Newell puts it in an easy-to-understand sequence of events. Having this book read often to children will light their inner-fire of strength to do what they believe and will contribute to their success, as it did for the author.
